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Zvretulin
General information The Zvretulin language is spoken by the Zvretulin people, scattered across much of Europe from Sweden to Greece with some more recent immigrations to Finland and Japan. It has many dialects all differing each other exclusively what loan words they share, though many of these will contain a few loans of Latin & Slavic from an earlier contact before the current diaspora. It has only one known relative, the overwhelmingly complex Zonqval spoken in the far east near Korea. But the two are quite different from each other. The Language is very complex in its syntactical morphology, but very simplistic, rather analytic, otherwise. Phonology Consonants Ng isnnThere is no regular distinction between the laterals. They are interchangeable. ng is an allophone of n before velar plosives. ggg Vowels When words appear to start with a vowel, they actually begin with a glottal stop. Alphabet Nothing is capitalized The symbol ' is used to separate letters so they don't form digraphs Phonotactics CV, CVC, CCV, CCVC, SCCV & SCCVC, but not VC. (S being any sibulant) Affricates, voiced plosives & glottals are not clusterable, nor do the appear in the final position. This is with the exception of "tc" witch can appear in the final position. A sibulant can be before a fricative, plosive, or approximant. An unvoiced plosive cannot follow a voiced sibulant nor can a voiced plosive follow an unvoiced sibulant. Plosive & fricatives can be before a flap, including the lateral flap. Grammar Nouns Nouns have three cases to mark the subject, direct object, indirect object, & the agent. Each has a prepositional form. More about the the use of the prepositionals will be explained in the example sentences below. Nouns also decline according to definitiveness, having a definite, indefinite, and a "non-definite" form. The non-definite form is used when the definitiveness of a noun isn't known, when there are non of the noun, or other instances where it can't be identified as definite nor indefinite. There are a couple declensions depending on the root ending. Declension C, where the root ends with any consonant other than t & v. Declension T Declension V Pronouns Zvretulin pronouns act like regular nouns. There are no determiners. Adpositions Verbs Verbs can take multiple tenses. More about the tense can be explained in the example sentences below. Past Tense: -zel Past & Present tense: -zelis Present Tense: -lis Present & Future Tense: -lisca Past, Present, & Future Tense: -zelisca There cannot be a past & future tense without it also being present tense. Additionally, verbs have prefix forms used to mark the distinction between transitive & intransitive. Transitive: u- Intransitive: (no prefix) To turn a verb into a gerund, use the suffix -int. This is then followed by the appropriate Declension T noun suffix To turn a verb into an adjective, use the prefix il- & the suffix -int. To turn a verb into an adverb, use the prefix il-. The Copula & Passive Voice. The Copula is zve. It is often prefixed into the next word, but not if the next word starts with a vowel. Unlike other verbs, zve does not have any inflectional forms. Examples Before nouns: be a thing = zvetanu Before adjectives: be good = zvebon Before Verbs: is reading = zveluc Before adpositions: be inside: zveti The copula never appears before any other part of speech. The Zvretulin equivalent of "is being" is "Zvega." This form inflicts regularly like any other verb. Negative Particle: ni Opening Particles The "Opening" Particles, so-called because they occur at the start of a sentence. identify the type of sentence. They also mark formality. Numbers Cardinal a la ti cin van vi pi ya tu ca Ordinal sa sla sti scin svan svi spi za stu sca Syntax and Additional Rules Much like Japanese, Zvretulin is a Verb final language. To form a question, put the particle "x" at the end of a sentence. This is the only word in the whole language that uses a click. When an adposition indicate a relation between two nouns, the first noun takes an adpositional suffix & the adposition goes in between the nouns. When a adposition indicate a relation betwee the noun and an entire event or clause, the addposition ends with i and the noun takes a adpositional suffix. The event or clause can come either before the adposition or after the noun, separated by a comma, but never between. Adjectives can behave like verbs when transitive. Duplication adds intensity to an adjective or verb. Aside from all these rules, Zvretulin is a rather free language. Vocabulary Example text I am reading my book & the book is very good. I(subject) me(direct object/prepositional) of book(direct object/definite) be-(intransitive)read(past-present-future), and book(agent/definite) be (transitive)good-good(past-present-future) icu iceni di libril zveluc'zelisca, i librir zve ubonbonzelisca. Category:Languages